Episcopal MDG Mapping Project

It was a Sunday afternoon in late September when we loaded a mini-van with the Holy Innocents' Cool Kids Club and met up our congregation's families with younger kids at Bayview Mission.

That day our children were prepped for their volunteer experience during Godly Play. They were excited to be going to a place where they could be part of an Episcopal mission in our Diocese where they could prepare bags of groceries that would be handed out to residents of the Bayview neighborhood.

The Rev. Nina Pickerell and her daughter Christine welcomed our young volunteers with open arms.  They quickly got busy picking tomatoes from the garden, sweeping the outdoor patio and bagging over 200 shopping bags with groceries to be handed out the following day.

Our kids got to sample a few of the items that were included in the bags. As an added bonus, they got to use the shop vac to suck up any bags of rice that made their way to the floor and broke open (this was a TREAT!).

The energy from the kids couldn't be contained - they were so happy to be able to participate in this way.  Nina let them take digital photos to mark their day of service to the community.

After working for several hours the kids were brought to the sidewalk where the following day a line would stretch all the way up to the start of the next block.  Nina had them line up as the Bayview Mission guests would line up and explored with the kids the kinds of things that people might need from day to day.

"How about clean socks?" "Books to read?" "Food on their table?" "Fresh vegetables?" "Paper and crayons to write with?"

The kids were surprised to hear that items that are so familiar to them are not easy to come by for many in the Bayview neighborhood.

They were even more amazed to see the barn in the back filled with books - enough to help local kids start their own libraries at home. They were encouraged to bring in some of the books they have outgrown to share with the mission.

At the end of the day as I dropped off each kid at their respective home, the big question was, "When can we go back?" That energy and that which was  conveyed in the photos of the day that were shared with our congregation was truly inspiring.  Once again, the children of Holy Innocents' have set an example to us of how to look outwards and serve the world.

As the 40+ children of Holy Innocents in San Francisco begin to get older, they are taking big steps to lead the congregation by modeling outreach.

In anticipation of the visit of our newly elected Bishop, Marc Andrus, on the first Sunday of Advent, our children began a "Fill the Ark for Marc" campaign which would benefit Heifer International's efforts to reduce poverty and hunger. Through Heifer, people across the globe are given animals and training and take a promise to "share the gift" (of their animals' offspring) with others in their village.  The animals provide nutrition and a means to generate money for their housing, nutritional, educational and other personal needs.

Our children first learned about Heifer by watching a video, then progressed into talking about what importance the animals were to poor people. Nehemiah, one of the kids involved in the project quickly understood that the recipients would "feel grateful" for their gift.

Over the next 30 days, the kids would lead the congregation in collecting money each day by following a calendar which provided education on the benefits of animals to these people.

As the money came in, the excitement couldn't be contained as they decided on which animals to purchase in honor of Bishop Marc: bees, goats, some chicks, and a llama were among the choices.  Nehemiah adds that he knew that Bishop Marc would "be very honored to get so many animals."

To this day, the kids still talk about the way they raised money to purchase animals to help the poor.

This year, our kids will be selling compact florescent light bulbs and educating our congregation on the importance of conserving energy. Part of the proceeds will go to some type of outreach of the kids' choosing.  We wouldn't be surprised if the purchase of animals is a top choice.

Grace Cathedral member Molly Lehman is a youth volunteer at the Bayview Mission. Her commitment to the program started out as way to fulfill her high school's community service requirements for graduation. The following essay recounts in her own words how the Bayview Mission has become a greater personal experience for her:

My name is Molly Lehmann. I am seventeen and a senior at the Putney School in Vermont. I have been a part of Grace Cathedral since I was a toddler and I have known about the Bayview Mission project for quite a while. I think we even have some Bayview-made pear jam in the fridge. I have lived in San Francisco all my life until I was sixteen, when I started traveling between [high] school and home.

Working at Bayview Mission feels like what it is: building a home. This is a place people want to work for and everyone has ideas to share. It is great to be part of an environment that doesn't just send people through an assembly line, quietly picking their food so they can leave. Because Bayview Mission is a home, people will get dressed up to chat with everybody while picking up a bag of groceries every Monday.

When I first went to Bayview, I was given a tour then asked to hand out vegetables as people poured in to pick up their groceries. People would come over after picking up a brown bag and then take home a combination of tomatoes, spinach and pears. I liked that these three items were put out for choosing, making the experience a little more like going to the store.

Bayview also seems to understand the people in its neighborhood. While I was passing out veggies two brothers came and worked out a deal where they could fold up all the leftover produce boxes in exchange for two big boxes of tomatoes. During the food pick-up, Nina puts out a free box of clothes for everyone to go through and then offers bags to those who found a lot.

Even though I started working for Bayview because I had some community service hours to spend, I really like what is happening there and I want to keep on helping to build the house.